“First came the debut writers and best of the lot was Joe Dunthorne who read the the first chapter of Submarine – very funny (modern Adrian Mole?), and very well read, and I will definitely try and get hold of it (before the movie comes out!). Then came the big-timers. Highlight was Margaret Atwood who came on to rapturous applause, did her impersonation of a cranky old lady, and gave a very good reading from a chapter of The Blind Assassin to relative hush, one of the 25 books being given away. Gaps between readings were filled by speakers and discussions revolving around anger at the library closures (hear hear) and a desire to ‘reintroduce reading as part of our culture’ (interesting as I wasn’t aware it had gone away!). Bonus was I left the event with a free book: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John le Carré, which I’m looking forward to reading.‘